What Does Job 7:6 Mean in the King James?

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

Job 7:6 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The Hebrew word for hope, ⁨תִּקְוָה⁩ (tiqvah, hope or expectation), can also mean a cord, so Job’s days race like a weaver’s shuttle while the thread that might link them to a future feels absent.

THE MEANING

Time feels as though it is passing with the quick, repetitive sweep of a shuttle, and each day closes before anything can be secured. The absence here is not merely cheerfulness; it is the felt absence of a future to wait for. The verse lets that exhaustion stand in the present without explaining it away.

THE ROOT

תִּקְוָה

tiqvah

GROWS FROM

קוה

q-w-h

To wait, look for, or expect.

The word rendered “hope,” ⁨תִּקְוָה⁩ (tiqvah, hope or expectation), can also mean a cord. That makes “without hope” resonate with the weaver’s shuttle: the days keep moving, but the line connecting them to an expected future feels missing.

ALSO GROWS

qavah: To wait, look for, or hope.

קָוָה

The root makes hope an orientation toward what is still awaited, not simply a feeling of optimism.

tiqvah: Hope or expectation; also a cord.

תִּקְוָה

The cord sense draws the verse’s hope into its weaving image: Job’s days move swiftly, but the thread of expectation is absent.

THE PATTERN

Human life can pass with devastating speed, and scripture names that brevity without dressing it up.

Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.

Job 9:25 · KJVLike Job 7:6, this verse gives the speed of passing days a force that cannot be softened.

Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

Psalm 39:5 · KJVA life measured against a handbreadth makes its brevity plain.

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

1 Peter 1:24 · KJVThe image of grass that withers gives passing human life a visible, temporary form.

THE THREAD

And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

Psalm 39:7 · KJV

It uses the same Hebrew noun, ⁨תִּקְוָה⁩ (tiqvah, hope or expectation): Job feels it absent, while the psalm places it in the LORD. The shared word makes the contrast immediate without erasing the despair in Job’s line.

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